Lisa Baue

09/07/2026

Happy Labor Day to those who never really clock out. 💛

You show up for families on their worst days.
You carry grief that isn't yours to carry, and you do it with steady hands and a full heart. It's a calling, and it deserves more than a day of recognition.

So today, we're not telling you to rest, because we know you probably won't. We're telling you this instead, your work matters, your leadership matters, and you belong in every room where the future of this industry gets decided.

To the hands, heads, hearts, and the grit that never clock out from caring, we see you. Keep going. 💪

09/05/2026

We could not end this week without acknowledging the loss of activist, feminist and fierce advocate for women and women’s rights, Gloria Steinem.

Steinem’s spirit of resistance, her consistent and powerful advocacy for women, her courage to speak truth to power throughout her life and career is (and will continue to be) a true inspiration to all of us.

Steinem was indomitable in her pursuit of progress for women. Throughout her years of advocacy, she did so much to further the idea that women needed equal treatment, equal access, and equal opportunities. Not only did she speak – she took action.

We are so grateful for her contributions.

As we know, this work is far from done, especially in our corner of the world in funeral service and deathcare.

Steinem’s passing reminds us to stay committed, to continue the fight, and to persist in the pursuit of our mission, which we think she would love: to unleash greatness in the women of this profession.💛

09/03/2026

Wake-Up Calls just received one of the highest honors a book can earn. The 2026 NYC Big Book Award named it a Distinguished Favorite in Death & Dying, standing alongside some of the most meaningful voices writing about this profession today. ✨

This book was never just my story. It’s the story of every woman who has stood in the arrangement room second-guessing herself, who has led with her whole heart while wondering if it was enough, who has shown up for families on their hardest days while quietly building the confidence to lead. This recognition belongs to all of you.

100% of the proceeds continue to fund women’s scholarships and Funeral Women Lead Foundation initiatives, because the goal was never the award. The goal was always you and what you’re capable of becoming.

Grab your copy and let’s keep writing this story together.

Cheering you on, always! 💛

08/26/2026

Before she was Dolly Parton, she was writing songs for other people to sing.

That's the part of her story that stopped me this week. A woman who grew up with nothing, built an empire, and never once forgot where she came from or who helped her get there.

We honor her today alongside Women's Equality Day, because Dolly Parton never waited for anyone to hand her a seat at the table. She built her own.

I sat down and wrote about her life, her humility, and what she teaches all of us about building something lasting without losing yourself along the way.

Link in comments, I hope it resonates with you the way it did with me.

Dolly Parton built an empire out of a childhood that had nothing to spare, and she never once let anyone forget where she came from. That's the part of her story I keep coming back to, especially today.

08/21/2026

I cried in a room of people I'd known for exactly one day.

A coach had handed me a blank piece of paper and asked me to draw my life, every climb, every drop. My line had more drops than I expected. Baues don't cry. We get back on the pony. I fought those tears with everything I had.
I lost.

That moment taught me something I'm still unpacking: head, heart, and grit only work when you use all three. For most of my career, I only used one.

Read this post then tell me: what are you waiting to feel ready for? 👇

Years ago, a coach at a leadership retreat handed me a blank piece of paper and asked me to draw my life. Every high year climbing up, every hard year dropping low, one long line from where I started to where I stood that day.

08/13/2026

Disney taught me how to run a funeral home. ✨

Before anyone at Disney interviews for a job, they watch a video showing the exact dress and appearance standards, down to how many rings per hand. They sign off before they're even hired.

I came home and built the same thing for my own team, because we'd been handling appearance issues case by case, reactively, after the fact and it wasn't fair to anyone.

Clarity before commitment is one of the kindest things you can offer another person. Vague expectations set people up to fail, then punish them for it. Clear ones give them the chance to succeed.

Standards can be high and human, though. When my team told me they were freezing at gravesides in hosiery, I listened, and we changed the rule.

If you lead a team: do you have written, visual dress standards? Do new hires see them before their first interview? If not, that's worth fixing.

Here's what we built, and what I'd tell you to build too. 👇

I learned one of the most useful things I ever applied at my funeral, cremation and cemetery company from an International theme park company, Disney. At Disney Institute, a behind-the-scenes leadership program, I learned how Disney hires, trains, and sets expectations for their "cast members.

08/06/2026

If the culture around you doesn't feel kind, if gossip travels faster than recognition, or if your name only comes up when something goes wrong, I want you to hear this clearly: you are allowed to want better.

In this post, I'm sharing the exact commitments and recognition system we built at Baue's after my own hard look in the mirror as a leader. Kindness has real structure to it, five commitments and a system for living them out loud, week after week.

Read how we built it, line by line.

Cheering you on, always!

Kindness gets talked about a lot in funeral service, and I think that's part of the problem. It becomes a word on a poster in the break room, something we nod along to without ever building it into how we actually operate.

07/30/2026

I asked my team to rate me as their leader. A full 360, no filters, every direct report weighing in.

What came back broke my heart, and then it rebuilt my entire leadership.

I cried in front of a room full of my peers, but it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to my company.

If you're leading a team right now, you need to read this before your own version of that moment arrives. 💛

You can build a mission statement around compassion, train your team on it, and repeat it at every staff meeting. We did all of that at Baue's, and we still had to learn, in the hardest possible way, that compassion has to travel in both directions before it's real.

07/23/2026

She told me her idea got dismissed in a meeting. Twenty minutes later, a man said the same thing and got praised for it.

Then she looked at me and asked, "Is there something wrong with me?"

There isn't. What's been called your weakness in this profession is actually your most powerful asset, and after 44 years, I can tell you exactly why.

There's a distinction between sympathy and empathy that most leaders never learn and I'm breaking it down in today's post.

Read the article below. 👇

I've heard it more times than I can count. A woman in a coaching session tells me she's been passed over for a management position.